Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2153164
Mondli Hlatshwayo
ABSTRACT Built on Internet-based research, this article traverses the less-charted terrain of the impact of COVID-19 on workers within South Africa during the country’s level 5 lockdown, which began on 26 March 2020 and ended on 30 April 2020. It reveals that the post-apartheid state’s adoption of austerity measures—which began in the 1990s—hampered efforts to meaningfully protect workers’ lives and livelihoods during the lockdown. The post-1994 African National Congress (ANC) government's neoliberal neglect of public health, housing and transportation made it next to impossible for the state to confront the virus, a challenge that required working and reliable infrastructure. Despite all these adversities, and in the general absence of the unions that were prevented from operating during lockdown level 5, workers resisted and demanded improved health and safety for themselves, better working conditions and access to transportation during the level 5 lockdown.
{"title":"The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown Level 5 on Workers: 35 Days that Shook Workers of South Africa","authors":"Mondli Hlatshwayo","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2153164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2153164","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Built on Internet-based research, this article traverses the less-charted terrain of the impact of COVID-19 on workers within South Africa during the country’s level 5 lockdown, which began on 26 March 2020 and ended on 30 April 2020. It reveals that the post-apartheid state’s adoption of austerity measures—which began in the 1990s—hampered efforts to meaningfully protect workers’ lives and livelihoods during the lockdown. The post-1994 African National Congress (ANC) government's neoliberal neglect of public health, housing and transportation made it next to impossible for the state to confront the virus, a challenge that required working and reliable infrastructure. Despite all these adversities, and in the general absence of the unions that were prevented from operating during lockdown level 5, workers resisted and demanded improved health and safety for themselves, better working conditions and access to transportation during the level 5 lockdown.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"43 1","pages":"22 - 40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79077735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2137842
C. Dziva, Gretchen Erika Du Plessis
ABSTRACT Women with disabilities (WWD) in rural Zimbabwe are unable to enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms. The aim of this study was to capture the experiences of WWD in a rural setting. Inspired by critical feminist disability theory, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 WWD (in particular, women with visual and physical impairments) in Mberengwa. Their stories demonstrate limited access to education, employment, information, land, and other productive resources. All of the research participants grappled with inaccessible public transport and buildings. Accessing grants, land, farming knowledge, funding for trade, water and toilet facilities became daily struggles. Contextual, socioeconomic, historic, and gendered power relations intersect to heavily limit their functioning. None of the research participants embraced victimhood, but instead resisted pity. Their push-back against abjection took various forms, such as attempting to earn an income, achieving reproductive aspirations, or working the land. Such actions, however, were often met with negative perceptions that equate disability with inability. Based on the findings, it is recommended that institutions responsible for WWD be restructured and better financed. In addition, the study calls for improved mainstreaming, advocacy and awareness-raising about the rights of WWD in rural Zimbabwe.
{"title":"Rural Women with Disabilities in Zimbabwe: A Critical Feminist Disability Account","authors":"C. Dziva, Gretchen Erika Du Plessis","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2137842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2137842","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Women with disabilities (WWD) in rural Zimbabwe are unable to enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms. The aim of this study was to capture the experiences of WWD in a rural setting. Inspired by critical feminist disability theory, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 WWD (in particular, women with visual and physical impairments) in Mberengwa. Their stories demonstrate limited access to education, employment, information, land, and other productive resources. All of the research participants grappled with inaccessible public transport and buildings. Accessing grants, land, farming knowledge, funding for trade, water and toilet facilities became daily struggles. Contextual, socioeconomic, historic, and gendered power relations intersect to heavily limit their functioning. None of the research participants embraced victimhood, but instead resisted pity. Their push-back against abjection took various forms, such as attempting to earn an income, achieving reproductive aspirations, or working the land. Such actions, however, were often met with negative perceptions that equate disability with inability. Based on the findings, it is recommended that institutions responsible for WWD be restructured and better financed. In addition, the study calls for improved mainstreaming, advocacy and awareness-raising about the rights of WWD in rural Zimbabwe.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"52 1","pages":"84 - 100"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85233104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2105940
M. Langa, B. Leopeng
ABSTRACT The following article provides a systematic multimodal analysis of the South African men’s publication Destiny Man. Articles published in the 2014 issues of the magazine were selected for an in-depth discussion of how factors such as access to economic resources and wealth play a significant role in lifestyle choices and the formation of the black middle-class in contemporary South Africa. Advertisements were analysed to further enrich the discussion in the paper. The findings indicate that Destiny Man’s characterisation of middle-class black South African masculinity is based on the acquisition of material goods, the ability to provide for one’s family and perceptions of power which are based on business transactions and socioeconomic empowerment—all rooted in a new culture of neoliberal capitalism penetrating sections of the South African population. This analysis alerts readers to the formation of a neoliberal capitalist culture as a major theme in Destiny Man magazine.
{"title":"Destiny Man: Black Middle Class Masculinities in South Africa, a Discourse Analysis","authors":"M. Langa, B. Leopeng","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2105940","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2105940","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The following article provides a systematic multimodal analysis of the South African men’s publication Destiny Man. Articles published in the 2014 issues of the magazine were selected for an in-depth discussion of how factors such as access to economic resources and wealth play a significant role in lifestyle choices and the formation of the black middle-class in contemporary South Africa. Advertisements were analysed to further enrich the discussion in the paper. The findings indicate that Destiny Man’s characterisation of middle-class black South African masculinity is based on the acquisition of material goods, the ability to provide for one’s family and perceptions of power which are based on business transactions and socioeconomic empowerment—all rooted in a new culture of neoliberal capitalism penetrating sections of the South African population. This analysis alerts readers to the formation of a neoliberal capitalist culture as a major theme in Destiny Man magazine.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"13 1","pages":"41 - 63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87683236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2076255
S. Inaka
ABSTRACT This article analyses interactions between trade unions, employers, and the state from a historical perspective. It contributes to literature on African unionism by focusing on particularities of the history of Congolese unionism. Using qualitative research based on interviews and desk research, this paper demonstrates that the Congolese state has often colluded with employers to dominate, repress and control trade unions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Drawing on the global labour history approach, Freund’s notion of African trade unions, Bulhungu’s concept of union–political parties’ relations, and Bulhungu and Tshoaedi’s notion of the pattern of union in post-liberation societies, the paper argues that the Congolese labour market has been an anti-union terrain since the colonial era. Yet it also claims that Congolese unionists have sought to resist the domination of political regimes and employers.
{"title":"Labour Relations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: An Epic History of an Anti-Unionism Terrain","authors":"S. Inaka","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2076255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2076255","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyses interactions between trade unions, employers, and the state from a historical perspective. It contributes to literature on African unionism by focusing on particularities of the history of Congolese unionism. Using qualitative research based on interviews and desk research, this paper demonstrates that the Congolese state has often colluded with employers to dominate, repress and control trade unions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Drawing on the global labour history approach, Freund’s notion of African trade unions, Bulhungu’s concept of union–political parties’ relations, and Bulhungu and Tshoaedi’s notion of the pattern of union in post-liberation societies, the paper argues that the Congolese labour market has been an anti-union terrain since the colonial era. Yet it also claims that Congolese unionists have sought to resist the domination of political regimes and employers.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"45 1","pages":"64 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86778091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2053737
J. Rothmann, Katlego Piitso, Werner Nell
ABSTRACT As little is known about the views of university students on metrosexual masculinities in South Africa, the aim of this study was to investigate the predictors and correlates of a group of 200 undergraduate students’ perceptions on whether metrosexuality should be considered as an acceptable form of contemporary masculinity. Results from the structured survey indicated that students’ race and levels of religiosity were not associated with the extent to which they viewed metrosexuality as acceptable. By contrast, in relation to sex/gender, female students exhibited more accepting attitudes towards metrosexuality than their male counterparts. Furthermore, the more importance students ascribed to media portrayals of orthodox masculinity as well as to primary gender-role socialisation, the less likely they were to accept metrosexuality. The study contributes to current research on masculinities by investigating metrosexuality as the primary theme, underscoring the similarities between South African and Anglo-American theorisation on the topic, foregrounding the perceptions of millennials in conceptualising and understanding contemporary masculinity, and problematising notions that South African students ascribe to homogenous or monolithic views of masculinity.
{"title":"Predictors and Correlates of South African University Students’ Perceptions of Metrosexuality as an Acceptable Form of Contemporary Masculinity","authors":"J. Rothmann, Katlego Piitso, Werner Nell","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2053737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2053737","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As little is known about the views of university students on metrosexual masculinities in South Africa, the aim of this study was to investigate the predictors and correlates of a group of 200 undergraduate students’ perceptions on whether metrosexuality should be considered as an acceptable form of contemporary masculinity. Results from the structured survey indicated that students’ race and levels of religiosity were not associated with the extent to which they viewed metrosexuality as acceptable. By contrast, in relation to sex/gender, female students exhibited more accepting attitudes towards metrosexuality than their male counterparts. Furthermore, the more importance students ascribed to media portrayals of orthodox masculinity as well as to primary gender-role socialisation, the less likely they were to accept metrosexuality. The study contributes to current research on masculinities by investigating metrosexuality as the primary theme, underscoring the similarities between South African and Anglo-American theorisation on the topic, foregrounding the perceptions of millennials in conceptualising and understanding contemporary masculinity, and problematising notions that South African students ascribe to homogenous or monolithic views of masculinity.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"11 1","pages":"20 - 39"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91210349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2076256
Josh Platzky Miller
ABSTRACT South Africa faces several massive, interconnected challenges that reverberate through its political economy, society and education system. This paper offers lessons for the current conjuncture by exploring radical democracy and educational experiments in two other contexts: Brazil, as a point of close comparison, and Rojava (northern Syria), as a point for dissimilar comparison but which offers a “real utopia”. The Brazilian student movement (2015–16) involved several waves of mass school occupations in the “student spring” (primavera secundarista), with students demanding free, quality public education and, within the occupations, experimenting with democratic, dialogical, caring educational spaces. The Revolution in Rojava, emerging in 2012 and continuing to date, offers an alternative model of social organisation guided by women’s liberation, ecological harmony, and “Democratic Confederalism”, a form of anti-capitalist radical democracy. It has provided fertile ground for a profoundly different education system from the statist, authoritarian models previously imposed in the region. This paper draws out several prominent themes from each context, drawing these into conversation with the contemporary South African context. First, the movements demonstrate the pedagogical importance of language and culture, history and social dynamics, the decommodification of education, feminism and ecology. Second, they highlight the political importance of education for self-organisation in relation to broader processes of social transformation.
{"title":"Radical Democracy and Educational Experiments: Lessons for South Africa from Brazil and Rojava","authors":"Josh Platzky Miller","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2076256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2076256","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT South Africa faces several massive, interconnected challenges that reverberate through its political economy, society and education system. This paper offers lessons for the current conjuncture by exploring radical democracy and educational experiments in two other contexts: Brazil, as a point of close comparison, and Rojava (northern Syria), as a point for dissimilar comparison but which offers a “real utopia”. The Brazilian student movement (2015–16) involved several waves of mass school occupations in the “student spring” (primavera secundarista), with students demanding free, quality public education and, within the occupations, experimenting with democratic, dialogical, caring educational spaces. The Revolution in Rojava, emerging in 2012 and continuing to date, offers an alternative model of social organisation guided by women’s liberation, ecological harmony, and “Democratic Confederalism”, a form of anti-capitalist radical democracy. It has provided fertile ground for a profoundly different education system from the statist, authoritarian models previously imposed in the region. This paper draws out several prominent themes from each context, drawing these into conversation with the contemporary South African context. First, the movements demonstrate the pedagogical importance of language and culture, history and social dynamics, the decommodification of education, feminism and ecology. Second, they highlight the political importance of education for self-organisation in relation to broader processes of social transformation.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"1 1","pages":"131 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88630276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2079152
Emma Daitz
ABSTRACT Using material both from Sobukwe’s well-known public addresses and from his lesser known private letters to his friend the liberal journalist Benjamin Pogrund, this article argues that Sobukwe is best regarded as a radical non-racialist who regarded race in anti-essentialist terms and sought to unmake the material, social and political conditions that give rise to it. It also explores the unmaking of race at the ordinary and everyday level.
{"title":"Towards a Future Without White People: Robert Sobukwe and the Category of the African","authors":"Emma Daitz","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2079152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2079152","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using material both from Sobukwe’s well-known public addresses and from his lesser known private letters to his friend the liberal journalist Benjamin Pogrund, this article argues that Sobukwe is best regarded as a radical non-racialist who regarded race in anti-essentialist terms and sought to unmake the material, social and political conditions that give rise to it. It also explores the unmaking of race at the ordinary and everyday level.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"12 1","pages":"112 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89775429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2088155
T. Nyawasha, N. Xulu-Gama
We write this editorial against the background of several things that are unfolding within our society. Judging by what we are beginning to see around the globe, the indication is that we are slowly entering what we would call a “post-pandemic” phase. Although not certain what the future looks like after emerging from one of the worst experiences that we have gone through for the past two years, it seems we are living in a tumultuous society. Locally, the deadly floods in KwaZulu-Natal, the growing incidences of anti-immigrant vigilantism, and the constant loadshedding episodes are but a few indicators. Globally, the war in Ukraine serves to illustrate the same. Given all these, the scope of interrogation and analysis for our journal (SARS) remains wide but honing down to some of these issues that our society continues to grapple with. For this, we remain eternally grateful to our contributors and reviewers, who are not merely spectators of the many social, political and economic processes unfolding within our society. It is clear these processes resemble not only a “tumultuous society” but “a society in transition,”. And making sense of this “society” requires deep methodological and theoretical reflections. To decipher what these changes/processes mean, and their significance, innovative sociological theory and methodology are required. Our journal has over the years been instrumental in shaping public discourse on several issues in South Africa and beyond. With every issue that we publish, we seek to continue the tradition of sharing highly engaging (both theoretical and empirical) scholarship. For instance, in one of our last volumes (vol. 51, issue 3–4), we published detailed empirical work on homelessness in South Africa, and the Covid-19 pandemic. This was followed by our volume 52 (issue 1) which also contained fascinating articles.
{"title":"Tumultuous Society: The Call for Innovative Sociological Theory and Methodology","authors":"T. Nyawasha, N. Xulu-Gama","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2088155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2088155","url":null,"abstract":"We write this editorial against the background of several things that are unfolding within our society. Judging by what we are beginning to see around the globe, the indication is that we are slowly entering what we would call a “post-pandemic” phase. Although not certain what the future looks like after emerging from one of the worst experiences that we have gone through for the past two years, it seems we are living in a tumultuous society. Locally, the deadly floods in KwaZulu-Natal, the growing incidences of anti-immigrant vigilantism, and the constant loadshedding episodes are but a few indicators. Globally, the war in Ukraine serves to illustrate the same. Given all these, the scope of interrogation and analysis for our journal (SARS) remains wide but honing down to some of these issues that our society continues to grapple with. For this, we remain eternally grateful to our contributors and reviewers, who are not merely spectators of the many social, political and economic processes unfolding within our society. It is clear these processes resemble not only a “tumultuous society” but “a society in transition,”. And making sense of this “society” requires deep methodological and theoretical reflections. To decipher what these changes/processes mean, and their significance, innovative sociological theory and methodology are required. Our journal has over the years been instrumental in shaping public discourse on several issues in South Africa and beyond. With every issue that we publish, we seek to continue the tradition of sharing highly engaging (both theoretical and empirical) scholarship. For instance, in one of our last volumes (vol. 51, issue 3–4), we published detailed empirical work on homelessness in South Africa, and the Covid-19 pandemic. This was followed by our volume 52 (issue 1) which also contained fascinating articles.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"31 1","pages":"1 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80368457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2068159
T. Muswede, S. Sithole
ABSTRACT The article explores the use of social media networking as a coping strategy among migrant women during the national lockdown in Limpopo, South Africa. This followed the government’s implementation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, which enforced strict regulations including closure of businesses, restricted movement, banning of informal trade and a wide range of social activities to curb the spread of the virus. While these actions were necessary to deal with the imminent threat of the pandemic, they had unintended effects on the livelihood of vulnerable groups such as migrant women who rely on informal work such as street vending, hair dressing and other menial jobs to fend for their families. Beyond disruption of their mode of economic survival, this was compounded by migrants’ non-eligibility to access social grants or benefits from the Disaster Relief Fund. This yielded unprecedented psychosocial uncertainties with increased potential for distress resulting from food insecurity, unstable accommodation, and isolation due to closed borders. Qualitative data were collected based on snowballed in-depth interviews with migrant women to saturation levels. Inference to the social presence and media richness theories was made to explicate the relationship between social media utilities and participants’ actions. The findings reveal that, migrant women relied on social media networking, particularly WhatsApp to receive updates on lockdown regulations; facilitate psychosocial support and empathise with fellow migrants elsewhere in the country; share survival strategies, and mobilise donations to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the lockdown among migrant women in the province.
{"title":"Social Media Networking as a Coping Strategy Amid the COVID-19 Lockdown: The Case of Migrant Women in Limpopo, South Africa","authors":"T. Muswede, S. Sithole","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2068159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2068159","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article explores the use of social media networking as a coping strategy among migrant women during the national lockdown in Limpopo, South Africa. This followed the government’s implementation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, which enforced strict regulations including closure of businesses, restricted movement, banning of informal trade and a wide range of social activities to curb the spread of the virus. While these actions were necessary to deal with the imminent threat of the pandemic, they had unintended effects on the livelihood of vulnerable groups such as migrant women who rely on informal work such as street vending, hair dressing and other menial jobs to fend for their families. Beyond disruption of their mode of economic survival, this was compounded by migrants’ non-eligibility to access social grants or benefits from the Disaster Relief Fund. This yielded unprecedented psychosocial uncertainties with increased potential for distress resulting from food insecurity, unstable accommodation, and isolation due to closed borders. Qualitative data were collected based on snowballed in-depth interviews with migrant women to saturation levels. Inference to the social presence and media richness theories was made to explicate the relationship between social media utilities and participants’ actions. The findings reveal that, migrant women relied on social media networking, particularly WhatsApp to receive updates on lockdown regulations; facilitate psychosocial support and empathise with fellow migrants elsewhere in the country; share survival strategies, and mobilise donations to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the lockdown among migrant women in the province.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"52 1","pages":"4 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81919511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-01DOI: 10.1080/21528586.2022.2079151
K. Yu
ABSTRACT A critical and comprehensive reflection of information and communication technology (ICT) is needed to prepare South Africa for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Through one uncommonly used theoretical framework in analysing ICT development—dramatism analysis—this article examines South Africa’s ICT development. By examining the nature and features of the development through this framework, this article highlights the multitude of South Africa’s ICT role players, the tensions among them and the unfulfilled roles from any potential hero in South Africa’s ICT drama. The analysis also exposes a shortcoming in current South African ICT literature, which privileges certain aspects of supply-side analysis over other critical supply side as well as demand-side analysis. The article finds that South Africa’s ICT development has largely been unsuccessful due to lack of strong leaders who are able to fulfil the role of a hero, which in turn impedes the country’s ability to take advantage of the opportunities and respond to the challenges presented by the 4IR.
{"title":"Waiting for a Hero: Dramatism Analysis of South Africa’s ICT Development","authors":"K. Yu","doi":"10.1080/21528586.2022.2079151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2022.2079151","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A critical and comprehensive reflection of information and communication technology (ICT) is needed to prepare South Africa for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Through one uncommonly used theoretical framework in analysing ICT development—dramatism analysis—this article examines South Africa’s ICT development. By examining the nature and features of the development through this framework, this article highlights the multitude of South Africa’s ICT role players, the tensions among them and the unfulfilled roles from any potential hero in South Africa’s ICT drama. The analysis also exposes a shortcoming in current South African ICT literature, which privileges certain aspects of supply-side analysis over other critical supply side as well as demand-side analysis. The article finds that South Africa’s ICT development has largely been unsuccessful due to lack of strong leaders who are able to fulfil the role of a hero, which in turn impedes the country’s ability to take advantage of the opportunities and respond to the challenges presented by the 4IR.","PeriodicalId":44730,"journal":{"name":"South African Review of Sociology","volume":"60 1","pages":"92 - 111"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86885557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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